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Christmas and New Year's Eve on board the Epic

Sail Date:
December 2010

Destination:
Western Caribbean

Embarkation:
Miami

This was my 35th cruise. I was curious about the Epic and I'm glad I booked this cruise. Having said that, I will not book the Epic again. I didn't think the ship was beautiful. It didn't have the wow factor. Except for the 3 deck crystal chandellier nothing caught my attention. I like when I'm cruising, to discover paintings and sculptures around the ship. The Epic had nothing to be discovered. I didn't find the ship to be well designed. The jogging deck is a joke. It's only half of a deck with no view. It's blocked by the lifeboats.

I always book the Courtyard Villa (if the ship has one)and I found out that the A3 on the Epic is smaller and narrower than on the Jewel Class. For example,there is no door separating the 2nd bedroom from the living room. That's a problem if you are not travelling with immediate family and want privacy in the living room. It wasn't our case.

I loved the Epic Club and the Epic Lounge. Excellent service and good food. I didn't realy use More
the courtyard pool and hot tubs because they were crowded and windy all the time. Lots of little kids. Another thing that I didn't like was the fact that there is no roof over the courtyard. So when it's windy or raining you can't use that area. The courtyard gym is very good. Much better than the ones on the Jewel class.

We only ate at the Epic Club, Moderno (wich was excellent), La Cuccina (very good and much nicer than on other ships), and Wasabi (the best sushi ever). I tried the Garden Cafe and thought the food was good and never had a problem finding a table.

I had already seen The Blue Man Group in NY and I thought the show on the Epic was just as good. I enjoyed it very much. Legends in Concert is not my cup of tea. I only went because I didn't have to pay for it. I would never pay to see an impersonator. I hated the Circus Show. I found it to be silly and stupid. There are some good talents on the show but the whole thing is so annoying that I wanted to strangle the clown. My food was hot but the rest of my party the food was cold and overcooked. They didn't eat anything. I looked around and most of the plates were full. I guess nobody liked the food that much. I loved the magician. Excellent show. He really knows how to communicate with the audience.

We went bowling and had a lot of fun. O'Sheena is very good. The kids loved all the pool slides specially the green one. I didn't spend much time in the pool area because it was very crowded but my kids would go in the pool and hot tub with other teenagers at the end of the afternoon.

In Costa Maya we went to Nohoch Kay and loved the place. The food was excellent, drinks were delicious, and service was perfect. Very friendly place. In Roatan my teenager daughters went to Clic-n-Zip. They had a great time. In Cozumel we did the wrangler 4x4 with cave diving. It was just okay. We thought we would be driving in the woods to get to the caverns but it was city driving the whole time. The cave itself is interesting but small and not much to see. The water was cold in the beginning but I got use to it and it was very pleasant. We loved our guide, Pancho. Do not leave anything in the jeep that you are driving because they take the jeep away to pick up other passengers and the jeep you will drive back to catch the ferry will be a different one.

Service throughout the ship was very good. I only encountered smiles and politeness. I saw a lot of officers interacting with the passengers. We had an amazing butler, Armando, and our cabin steward Ronald spoiled us. Florentina, the concierge was a saint. I saw a woman yelling at her because of a dinner reservation and she never lost her composure.